Look out,
Intel -- the whole world's gunning for you, with both VIA (
possibly, anyway) and now
Freescale looking to snag a sliver of the netbook CPU pie. Reportedly, the latter company will be debuting a netbook-centric chip at CES this week from its i.MX line. More specifically, the i.MX515 -- which is based on the Cortex-A8 core from ARM -- will aim for miniature laptops that sit at or below the almost mythical $199 price point. It's being reported that Freescale will showcase a Pegatron (ASUS spinoff) built netbook in Vegas, though it's not clear just yet if similar models will actually be available for purchase in the near future. The real kicker, however, is the potential battery life of machines with this here chip installed -- we're talking up to eight hours, though there's no indication of what size battery pack would be required to reach that goal. It should be noted that the low-power CPUs won't support Windows at all, so you'll only see 'em within machines with Linux-based operating systems.
[Via
PC World]
posted Jan 5th 2009 2:52AM
But will it survive leap years?
Not after this mess:
http://www.aeroxp.org/2009/01/lesson-on-infinite-loops/
Sure, we're just looking at up to eight hours of downtime every four years.
No big deal.
DIE INTEL!!!!!!
so freescale is trying to stick it to both megacompanies - intel and ms. hmmm, not sure if the technology gods will allow that.
Remember that Windows CE supports ARM...
Yes but it sucks... Note that Windows CE != Windows Mobile.. WinMo apps do not run on CE
Linux, OTOH, would not be much different from an x86 machine.. ie. full featured desktop with most of the apps every Linux user (regardlesss of what distro/DE) is familiar with
WinMo 6.x runs on WinCE 5.x.
With netbooks turning from low-cost linux portable into larger medium-priced windows machines, maybe this chip will introduce a "sub-netbook" class. I just hope it has enough performance to be functional, especially at flash video playback and multitasking (IM+video chat+internet browsing+youtube), since that would be the common usage of netbooks.
TI's OMAP3530 (also based on the A8) is already being used in the Pandora, a sub-netbook with 10hr battery life. The A8 is damn near as fast as the Atom with less than 1/5 the power consumption.
This is what I have been wanting ever since ARM and Canonical announced an ARMv7 port to come. I want a netbook with a good display for internets and typing notes with great battery life. Now to wait for the next announcement: an actual netbook that is coming out with the chip.
Why? You cannot run Ubuntu on intel/Via/amd machines? Why someone might prefer ARM? You like to compile everything from source? And what if something is not open source? Or difficult to compile?
Yes you can run Ubuntu on X86 machines, but you can not get 8hours+ battery time on them, ARM is much more energy efficient,
@dentrado
Thanks for replying to Mac as I would.
I want an ARM netbook because it is 1) cheaper to produce and 2) has a lot better battery life with the same-sized battery used in netbooks now (usually 3 or 4-cells).
@Mac
As for programs for a netbook, I want:
1) Firefox 3
2) OpenOffice and maybe AbiWord
3) A music player (Amarok or XMMS)
4) a video player (VLC, Totem, etc.)
All of those are open source and would be in binary form when the ARM port of Ubuntu is released, so there would be no compiling necessary.
Did anyone think of how apple smashed netbooks...well one of the reasons was the technology wasn't there, this is one of those steps towards a netbook! or that tablet-book that everyone has be dreaming of!!!
Our Freescale Friends are launching their A8 core at last....There are demands for explanations as to why it had taken so long to integrate A8 core in the IMX family?
It seems that Texas Instruments was faster in this process with their OMAP3550 (launched Feb 08), I have tested the platform thanks to the BeagleBoard.org community and I must say that this A8 capabilities are impressive….do you know if Freescale has some tools available already?
Finally I see something i assembled at work using in customer application... :)
Read my lips, this is going to be the highlight of CES.
Freescale and the other ARM Cortex A8 chip producers, Texas Instruments, Qualcomm and others.
All are coming with Intel-killer chips. The Ubuntu experience will be totally PC like on these.
8 hours of battery life is a minimum using a 3-cell battery. Use a Pixel Qi screen and a 6-cell battery and you've got more than 15 hours of battery.
7" model at below $150 retail, 8.9" model at below $200 and 10.2" at below $250.. with built-in HSDPA and WiFi mesh as well..
Goodbye Intel and Microsoft.
Well, probably not at those prices. The CPU/Chipset is no where near the biggest cost on these netbooks. Secondly, while Ubuntu is great for people who know at least a little bit about PCs, its probably not the OS that Grandma and Grandpa are going to be most comfortable.
A8's will not kill Intel or Microsoft. They will expand the ARM baseline, but even then I doubt it will be enough to detour the fact that ARM is a mobile Multimedia core first and foremost.
Where A8's will definitely make a huge impact is the MID area. Can't wait for the Next gen Nokia tablet and the Pandora, both of which will provide a far better base then any current MID.
actually 90% of ubuntu hard to useness etc.. comes from haveing to detect the hardware on x86 platforms
Ubuntu would be preinstalled on these devices and preconfigured no setup required and you can install whatever program without even leaving your home for free in most cases how could anyone not like that?
ARM makes many other components much cheaper. ARM means much lower power consumption required which cuts costs significantly over the Atom based designs.
Ubuntu or Google Android based Linux OS on ARM laptops will be 00% grandma friendly. Just browsing around the Internet, that is what 99% of grandmas really want. If you want to add more software, simply go to the "Add and Remove software" icon on the desktop. Adding and removing software and updating software is actually much simpler and safer on a well integrated optimized Linux then it is on Windows XP.
Archos 5G is already much better then any MID and it's better than Nokia's next tablet and better than the Open Pandora project. Best of all the Archos 5G is already available.
1.0Ghz Cortex-A8 FTW!
Seriously though, the Cortex A8 will be an excellent processor for cellphones and MIDs, not sure about netbooks. It may cut it for some, but surely the dual-core/quad-core Cortex-A9 (with out-of-order processing) will put Atom in the dust!
Can't you run BSD on ARM A8?
http://www.arm.com/products/CPUs/ARM_Cortex-A8.html
Did you guys here that? An ASUS notebook is going to be revealed with it! You know what that means? They'll finally reach the
plastic casing? its temps are that low?
"miniature laptops that sit at or below the almost mythical $199 price point"
ASUS Eee PC EeePC4G-BK029 7'' Netbook $199.99 shipped:
http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/hot-deals/893018?newest=1#last
Awesome! After reading the headline I just figured it was some crappy low-power x86 core.
As others here have mentioned, The ARM Cortex-A8 is great. We are not talking about a higher-clocked ARM9/ARM11 like all the smartphones use -- Cortex-A8 is ARM's next-generation architecture and is more than twice as fast as ARM11 at the same clock. T.I.'s OMAP line and other smartphone/MID chips will run at 500-800Mhz, but it is capable of much higher. Qualcomm's ARM Cortex based Snapdragon SoC runs the ARM core at 1.5Ghz!
Hopefully sometime in 2010 the A8's big brother, the Cortex-A9 will be ready. Although it uses the same Cortex instruction set and a similar processing core, it has out-of-order processing like most PC processors (except Intel's Atom) in addition to a new SMP architecture which allows for native dual and quad-core chips! It will no doubt have an astounding performance/power ratio.
Regarding ARM's duel with Intel, Cortex-A8 chips will have an extraordinary power advantage over the current 45nm Atom platform. Things will change significantly with the future 32nm Atoms that are not just a die-shrink, but a true system-on-a-chip platform that removes the need for the power-hungry mobile chipset. ARM in all likelihood will still have a significant power advantage, but Intel will be working hard to try to close the gap and they are no doubt the world leader in advanced silicon manufacturing, so they will always stay one step ahead of ARM in terms of manufacturing technology.
The point should be made that the lifecycle of embedded hardware is very different from the normal CPU market. Intel and AMD are able to start production of new processor designs relatively soon after the architecture has been completed. The reason for this is that they design, test, and manufacture the CPU themselves. In most cases, they also create the supporting chipset for the CPU, and this platform is then sold/licensed to 3rd party companies to be integrated into computers. Another factor contributing to the fast turn-around time is that the PC market is very mature and uses standardized components -- Therefore computer manufacturers can update their products to use new platforms and components very quickly.
This is *not* the case with embedded processors, including ARM. One of the primary reasons for the long lead time is that ARM doesn't actually manufacture anything. It makes money by licensing processor core designs to 3rd party chip manufacturers like TI, Samsung, etc. So upon completion of a particular architecture, instead of beginning production as Intel would do, ARM has to go out and market the new technology. Once a company becomes a licensee, they receive the "blueprints" and goes to work integrating the processor core into a new system-on-a-chip ("SoC") CPU. This is no small task, particularly when you are talking about a new architecture in contrast to just a die shrink or minor revision. The processor has to coordinating activity among many different components and all of this has to be tested extensively. Once they have it in production, they will sell it to the final company in this chain, the actual device manufacturer. This company then has to integrate the chip onto the PCB "motherboard" of the final product along with other basic components. Finally, once the completed end-user product is manufactured, it can shipped to stores and sold to customers.
The end result of this long process is that a newly completed ARM processor design won't find its way into end-user products for years.
As an example, the Cortex-A8 processor core mentioned above in the Freescale chip and which is also used in Texas Instruments OMAP3 series of processors and Qualcomm's Snapdragon platform still has yet to see the light of day in a shipping smartphone or netbook. I'm not sure about the others, but T.I.'s Cortex-A8-based OMAP3 processors have been available since early 2007. And even more surprising, the Cortex-A8 core itself has been ready since late 2005!!
So my point (I think I have one.. lol) after all that is just imagine if newly-completed ARM processors could be integrated into shipping products within
Is netbook really that attractive? I still can get my eyes on netbook. I just think that it has nothing compared to laptop.